A seat belt assembly is a type of harness system designed to restrain an occupant of an automobile or other motorized vehicle against inadvertent movement that may result, for example, from an abrupt stop or sudden impact. Conventional seat belt assemblies, more commonly referred to as a safety belt, employ a belt buckle or like element, which is positioned inboard from the occupant seating position, for engagement with a mating latch plate or fastener, generally provided outboard from the occupant seating position. Engagement of the belt buckle with the latch plate provides a belt or belt webbing across the body of a seated occupant for restraining the occupant against abrupt movement from the seat.
Many vehicles, as part of an overall occupant restraint system, may also include one or more inflatable airbag devices. Inflatable airbag devices, which are now more normally referred to in the art as Supplementary Restraint Systems (SRS), Air Cushion Restraint Systems (ACRS), or Supplemental Inflatable Restraint Systems (SIR), are originally equipped in almost all present day automotive vehicles. Airbag devices are generally located in the passenger compartment of automotive vehicles, and act as a selectively deployable cushion capable of attenuating occupant kinetic energy.
Traditional airbag devices comprise an inflatable airbag module stored either behind the vehicle instrument panel (e.g., for passenger-side airbags), or mounted to the steering wheel hub (e.g., for driver-side airbags). A plurality of sensors or similar devices is strategically located to detect the onset of a predetermined event. The sensor(s) responsively activates an inflation device, internally located in the airbag module, to produce a flow of inflating gas into an inflatable flexible cushion (i.e., an airbag cushion), also located within the airbag module. This causes the airbag cushion to be deployed in a rearward direction within the vehicle passenger compartment.